Finishing a toy box

[bmuir]

I have found a wonderful idea for a toy box for our soon-to-be grandchild (could be boy or girl, don't know yet). It involves finishing the box with water-based poly and painted design.
My questions is: In what order?
Do I lay down a several coats of poly and paint on that?
Or
Do I lay down a coat or two of poly, paint and then several coats of poly over that?
Or
Paint on the raw wood and apply several coats of poly over that once the paint dries?
I have never finished anything like this so I am at a loss.
Thanks for the help.

Bill

Here is a look at the toy box idea:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3326/...1a496b.jpg?v=0

[drumpriest]

I would say shellac, paint, shellac, top coat. lacquer would be a great choice for this, as the burn in eliminates the need to sand between coats, making it much less likely that you damage the paint job.

Any lacquer with burn in will do the trick. As I've posted here often I use EPL from target coatings, which is a water based acrylic "lacquer", but unlike other acrylics it has burn in! Nitrocellulose would work well also, of course, but I figured if you were looking at "waterborne poly" you might be worried about the VOC content, and EPL is SUPER low VOC.

[cabinetman]

I would stay with all waterbased materials. A few coats of base, then do the additional trim, and then finish of with a few coats of clear. With sufficient base, not much sanding would be necessary, and if any it should be non aggressive. The last clear coats will be the ultimate finish, and properly applied may be just fine "off the gun".
.